Aug. 1 (UPI) — Pat Carroll, the Emmy-winning veteran comedian and the voice of Ursula the sea witch from the Disney animated film “The Little Mermaid,” has died. She was 95.
Her daughter Kerry Karsian told The Hollywood Reporter that Carroll had died Saturday of pneumonia at her Cape Cod, Mass., home.
Actress Tara Karsian, Carroll’s other daughter, also confirmed her death on Instagram, and she asked the public to honor their mother “by having a raucous laugh at absolutely anything today (and everyday forward).”
The gregarious Carroll has credits in TV and film that go back seven decades and include appearances on iconic gameshows and sitcoms, such as “Password” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” The sketch-comedy thespian also gained acclaim on the stage, especially for her performance in a one-woman show she had commissioned about Gertrude Stein.
Carroll was born in Shreveport, La., in 1927 with her acting career starting early in life following a move with her family to Los Angeles at the age of five.
Following performances in local productions, Carroll’s first credit came in 1947 in the film “Hometown Girl,” according to IMDB.
In 1957, Carroll would win the best supporting actress Emmy for her work on the sketch-comedy TV show “Caesar’s Hour,” beating out the likes of Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on the sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
Then in the late 1970s, she commissioned a Texas playwright to pen her a one-woman show titled “Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein” about the larger-than-life poet, The New York Times reported.
Her performance garnered her the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards in 1980 as well as a Grammy in the best spoken word category for her recording of the play.
Later that decade, Carroll would leave her mark on a whole new generation when she took on the voice of Ursula in the Disney animated feature “The Little Mermaid” in 1989.
She is survived by her two daughters and a granddaughter.
